April 5, 2016

Arriving in Sweden yesterday I discovered to my dismay that the plug- and current converter I bought in the States does not work in Sweden where all the electrical outlets have the safety feature of being set into the wall at a depth of almost an inch.  My phone and computer are now empty of charge. First, this should not have happened to someone who has been going back to Europe for a long time, and, second, the panicky feeling the situation engenders is startling since I lived for a long time without any of the coveniences provided by technology.  I am now writing on a University computer in the office assigned to me and will shortly set out into town to scout for the needed Equipment, although I am pessimistic about achieving success. The most serious lack is my Kindle which contains all the books I would have otherwise toted along.  So here we are and I remember how during my first sabbatical, part of which I spent in Israel, on the hill with the Sisters of Sion in Ein Kerem, I made a phone call home from a local shop, once or twice.  When did it happen that I became so connected, so tuned in to internet, books on a tablet, within instant reach of loved ones that without this possibility I feel I cast off from my moorings,truly untethered? Willy nilly I must stay there for a while.  Perhaps the Technikmagisenet where I am headed will return me to anchored existence.